Ray Nethery

Ray Nethery is the founder of the Alliance For Renewal Churches and a close personal friend of Mr. Maki’s. In the mid 1960’s, Mr. Nethery was working for Campus Crusade for Christ as the director of their Asian branch. Through his work, Mr. Nethery spent significant time in Japan doing evangelistic outreach. It was at this time that he developed a working relationship with Mr. Kosuke Maki, who was then a young Japanese Christian who served him as his interpreter. They traveled extensively together, developing a lasting friendship.

Mr. Nethery eventually settled in Mansfield, Ohio and worked towards starting a live-in Christian retreat and work study center in Mansfield.  His dream was to model it after Francis Schaefer's "L'Abri" community in Switzerland. Over time, the work-study program Mr. Nethery began grew into a church and was named Grace Haven Farm (now Grace Fellowship Church).

Some years later, in the mid-1980's, Mr. Maki contacted Mr. Nethery inviting Grace Fellowship to send a native English-speaking Christian to work at Wakakusa English School as an English teacher for a year. In response, GFC sent an individual who was to be the first of many English teachers in what is now the Wakakusa English Program.

Mr. Nethery and Mr. Maki still correspond to this day.